Australia defended the men’s team pursuit title, while New Zealand dethroned defending champions Germany to win the men’s team sprint crown at the World Track Cycling Championships on Wednesday.
Australia retained their crown by rallying in the last half to the race to defeat Denmark in the final.
Glenn O’Shea, Alexander Edmonson, Mitchell Mulhern and Miles Scotson won in 3 minutes, 57.907 seconds, with Denmark’s Lasse Hansen, Casper Folsach, Alex Rasmussen and Rasmus Quaade finishing the 4km 1.716 seconds back.
Photo: EPA
Australia also took the world crown in 2010 and 2011 and finished second in 2012.
In the men’s team sprint, the leaders in qualifying, the New Zealand lineup of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Edward Dawkins, won the final in 42.840 seconds, with Germany’s Rene Enders, Robert Forstemann and Max Levy finishing 0.045 seconds behind.
The Kiwis lost to Germany in last year’s final.
New Zealand beat Russia for third in the men’s team pursuit, while France beat Russia for third in the team sprint.
In the women’s competitions, Germany defeated China in the team sprint final, with Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel finishing in 32.440 seconds and China’s Lin Junhong and Zhong Tianshi trailing in 33.239 seconds.
Britain’s Jessica Varnish and Rebecca James took third place in 33.032 seconds, edging Russian pairing Elena Brezhniva and Anastasia Voinova by just 0.122 seconds.
In the women’s 10km scratch final, Belgium’s Kelly Druyts took the title, with Poland’s Katarzyna Pawlowska second and Russia’s Evgenia Romanyuta finishing third.
Druyts, a 24-year-old who was third in 2012, completed the 40 laps in an average speed of 46.164kph.
LANCE ARMSTRONG
AP, DALLAS
A Texas judge has rejected Lance Armstrong’s request to stop an arbitration panel from reviewing US$12 million in bonuses the cyclist was paid before admitting he used performance-enhancing drugs.
Judge Tonya Parker declined on Tuesday to stop the panel from considering whether Dallas-based SCA Promotions should be repaid the bonuses it awarded Armstrong for three of his seven Tour de France victories.
Jeff Tillotson, an attorney for SCA Promotions, said on Wednesday that the panel would meet on March 17 to discuss his request that Armstrong forfeit prize money from those races and penalize him for committing perjury.
SCA Promotions filed one of several lawsuits against Armstrong after he admitted to doping. He has been stripped of all seven victories and received a lifetime ban from the sport.
SCA and Armstrong reached a 2006 settlement in arbitration after allegations surfaced that Armstrong was using banned drugs to win races. Armstrong vehemently denied the allegations during arbitration, as he did for more than a decade.
After Armstrong acknowledged last year that he had been lying, SCA went to court and then back to the original three-member panel. The panel voted 2-1 in October last year to review the case.
SCA’s lawsuit quotes Armstrong’s repeated denials in sworn testimony.
Tillotson argued last week that Armstrong “lied at every step of the way,” making it necessary for the panel to review the settlement.
Armstrong’s attorneys argued before Parker last week that the panel no longer had authority to review the settlement once it was signed — even if SCA could demonstrate that Armstrong lied under oath.
Armstrong’s longtime attorney, Tim Herman, declined to comment on Wednesday night.
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